Hi! Maybe "Monsieur le Microbe" needed some friends, so here we go: Bonjour, les microbes :D
Also bonjour to you. I hope you're having a swell day and an even sweller weekend 
#microbes
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The Secret Magic Of Gophers To Help Restore Devastated Landscapes
“A team of American scientists sought to learn whether a team of burrowing rodents could help restore Mount St Helens after her 1980 eruption.”
by @GrrlScientist via #Substack
#gophers #MountStHelens #Fungi #microbes #microbiology #SciComm https://grrlscientist.substack.com/p/the-secret-magic-of-gophers-to-help
Video and article from our lab about our latest giant virus paper
"Researchers discover large dormant virus can be reactivated in model green alga"
And link to original paper
https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-2552/full
news.vt.eduResearchers discover large dormant virus can be reactivated in model green algaFrank Aylward and Maria Paula Erazo Garcia discovered the largest virus ever recorded with a latent infection cycle in the model green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardti. Their findings were published in Science.
Continued thread
Artificial text - it's up to you to check if it's true.
MDPIDirect Meta-Analyses Reveal Unexpected Microbial Life in the Highly Radioactive Water of an Operating Nuclear Reactor CoreThe pools of nuclear reactor facilities constitute harsh environments for life, bathed with ionizing radiation, filled with demineralized water and containing toxic radioactive elements. The very few studies published to date have explored water pools used to store spent nuclear fuels. Due to access restrictions and strong handling constraints related to the high radioactivity level, nothing is presently known about life in water pools that directly cool nuclear cores. In this work, we investigated the microbial communities in the cooling pool of the French Osiris nuclear reactor using direct meta-omics approaches, namely, DNA metabarcoding and proteotyping based on 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing and on peptide analysis, respectively. We identified 25 genera in the highly radioactive core water supply during operation with radionuclide activity higher than 3 × 109 Bq/m3. The prevailing genera Variovorax and Sphingomonas at operation were supplanted by Methylobacterium, Asanoa, and Streptomyces during shutdown. Variovorax might use dihydrogen produced by water radiolysis as an energy source.
Using digital blueprints, a computational biologist explains how #microbes could colonize space, produce drugs, and generate energy—highlighting how these models could shape the future of #biotechnology, #medicine, and #space exploration. https://theconversation.com/microbes-can-colonize-space-produce-drugs-and-create-energy-researchers-are-simulating-their-inner-workings-to-harness-how-241131 #genomics
The ConversationMicrobes can colonize space, produce drugs and create energy − researchers are simulating their inner workings to harness howUsing digital blueprints of the metabolism of microbes, scientists can simulate expensive and time-intensive experiments set in space, power plants and farm fields.
Using digital blueprints, a computational biologist explains how #microbes could colonize space, produce drugs, and generate energy—highlighting how these models could shape the future of #biotechnology, #medicine, and #space exploration. #genomics https://theconversation.com/microbes-can-colonize-space-produce-drugs-and-create-energy-researchers-are-simulating-their-inner-workings-to-harness-how-241131
Replied in thread
@TodePond What if microbes but digital?
https://laura.fm/generative-art/microbe/index.html
aaaaaaaaaa
microbes, but digital
"Incorporating wood sawdust and chips into field soils stimulates fungal growth. In particular, incorporation of hardwood material resulted in rapid and long-term stimulation of fungal filamentous growth. The fungi that develop are not the wood rot basidiomycetes found in forests but ascomycetes (sac fungi) that have easy access to the cellulose polymers in shredded wood."
"Stimulating fungi through wood addition fits well with more sustainable agriculture. It suppresses plant pathogenic fungi and the excess nitrogen, which might otherwise wash out, is captured by the fungi. It also increases the overall diversity of soil life by providing fungal-eating soil creatures with a food source."
https://nioo.knaw.nl/en/news/the-hidden-world-of-wood-decaying-fungi
nioo.knaw.nl · The hidden world of wood-decaying fungi | Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)Of all the components of dead plants, wood is the hardest to break down. How come fungi know how to do this? What issues did they need to solve to achieve this? The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) tries to find answers to these questions. The research has yielded surprising discoveries. These could be useful for sustainable forest and nature management, sustainable agriculture and even the development of new medicines.
Continued thread
A current study calculates the potential food yield that could be produced using high heat 
to break down the organic compounds found in #asteroids 
. The resulting hydrocarbons could then be fed to #microbes 
that would consume the organic material and produce biomass of nutritional 
value to humans https://www.space.com/mining-asteroids-food-deep-space-missions
Space · Astronauts could mine asteroids for food someday, scientists say
A team of scientists in Spain and Japan has found live fungi, bacteria and viruses thousands of meters in the Earth’s atmosphere. For their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group chartered a plane and collected air samples over Japan at altitudes of 1,000 to 3,000 meters. The team ended up finding 266 types of fungi and 305 types of bacteria up in the atmosphere. Read more from Phys.org.
Phys.org · Researchers find live fungi, bacteria and viruses high in the Earth's atmosphere
From recycling to food: Can we eat plastic-munching microbes? - Enlarge (credit: Olga Pankova/Moment via Getty Images)
In 2019... - https://arstechnica.com/?p=2044986 #syndication #foodsupply #recycling #microbes #science #plastic
Ars Technica · From recycling to food: Can we eat plastic-munching microbes?Researchers are trying to turn plastic-eating bacteria into food source for humans.
"The underworld was real, but its inhabitants were much smaller and stranger than anyone had imagined."
For The New York Times Magazine, Ferris Jabr writes about Earth-system #science, underground #microbes, and our planet's very active #subterranean world: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/24/magazine/earth-geomicrobiology-microbes.html
The New York Times · Earth’s Mysterious, Deep-Dwelling Microbes We’re Only Starting to Understand
Mesmerising microbes: bacteria as you’ve never seen it before – in pictures
“As a side hustle he manipulates and photographs the microbial world; his images are collected in a book, Beautiful Bacteria. Taking bacteria from substances such as wastewater, dental plaque or kimchi, Danino lets them multiply in a petri dish, adding dyes. The results are artworks differing from the digital enhancements often made in scientific photography to make images more informative.”
#News #Photography #Photo #Photos #Image #Images #Microbiology #Biology #Science #STEM #Bacteria #Microbes #Microbes @science @biology @microbiology
the Guardian · Mesmerising microbes: bacteria as you’ve never seen it before – in picturesScientist Tal Danino’s incredible images of the microbial world
I realized that I haven’t showed you all of my black hole doodles yet! This is probably the most recent one. I can tell because the shading makes the holes look more convincing, and that took me a lot of practice to figure out how to do that. Can you find the waterbear?
I call this piece…
Cosmic Ooze
Doodle No. 108
Watercolor, ink, colored pencil
on 8” square cotton paper
#art #MathArt #BlackHole #surface #watercolor #painting #astronomy #microbes
EurekAlert!How soil microbes survive in harsh desert environmentsProlonged droughts followed by sudden bursts of rainfall – how do desert soil bacteria manage to survive such harsh conditions? This long-debated question has now been answered by an ERC project led by microbiologist Dagmar Woebken from the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CeMESS) at the University of Vienna. The study reveals that desert soil bacteria are highly adapted to survive the rapid environmental changes experienced with each rainfall event. These findings were recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.
"if the last blue whale choked to death on the last panda, it would be disastrous but not the end of the world. But if we accidentally poisoned the last two species of ammonia-oxidizers, that would be another matter. It could be happening now and we wouldn't even know..."
Tom Curtis (Prof. of Env. Eng., Uni. Newcastle up. Tyne), 2006
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro1455 (Editorial for Nature Reviews Microbiology)
NatureMicrobial ecologists: it's time to 'go large' - Nature Reviews MicrobiologyThe extent of microbial diversity in the environment is beginning to be assessed by environmental genomics studies, but are these studies large enough? Here, Tom Curtis issues a call to arms for microbial ecologists — it's time to start thinking big.
Scientists Discover “Astonishing” Secret to a Better Tasting Cup of Tea
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-astonishing-secret-to-a-better-tasting-cup-of-tea/ #agriculture #tea #roots #soil #microbes
SciTechDaily · Scientists Discover “Astonishing” Secret to a Better Tasting Cup of TeaYou’d think the complex flavor in a quality cup of tea would depend mainly on the tea varieties used to make it. However, recent research published in the journal Current Biology shows that the making of a delicious cup of tea depends on another key ingredient: the collection of microbes found on te
• 
2018, #ISS became the first facility to produce #BECs 
in #space 
• In #space, so-called cool flames 
can burn for minutes
• #ISS water 
purification system deployed across #India 
, #Mexico 
, #Pakistan
• #StemCells regenerative medicine 
could repair/replace failing organs and cells
• Higher quality protein crystals
• #Microbes can extract metals from #regolith
• Tissue/organ-on-a-chip effects faster in #microgravity
• #3Dprinting
• Organ growth
https://interestingengineering.com/lists/13-science-breakthroughs-experiments-iss
Interesting Engineering · 13 breakthroughs and experiments that were possible thanks to the ISSThe International Space Station was launched 25 years ago this month. Here are some of the best scientific breakthroughs and experiments from the orbital laboratory.
"Wherever a Dead Body Lies, The Exact Same Organisms Always Appear"
ScienceAlert · Wherever a Dead Body Lies, The Exact Same Organisms Always AppearThe ecological clean-up crew that breaks down dead bodies features several of the same species, and tend to always follow the same routine – regardless of location, climate or season, new research shows.